The Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) and Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), supported by the Coastal States Stewardship Foundation (CSSF) as their fiscal agent, are the hosts of the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind (RWSC) and have responsibility for the programmatic, contractual, staffing, fiscal, and legal oversight of the entity. As such, NROC and MARCO support the RWSC Steering Committee in implementing the RWSC mission. NROC and MARCO are responsible for the hiring of a Director in consultation with the Steering Committee. NROC and MARCO provide appropriate oversight of the Director’s work to manage the RWSC budget, contracts, grants, and staffing to ensure that RWSC has sufficient capacity such that regional wildlife and offshore wind research, grant and contract, and fiscal administrative objectives can be met.
CSSF, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity, serves as RWSC’s fiscal agent, consistent with Memoranda of Understanding with NROC and MARCO. In practice this means that CSSF is the vehicle through which staffing, contracts, and grants for RWSC are executed and managed. CSSF will receive and remit payments on behalf of RWSC for services rendered and funds received. This includes:
- Providing a vehicle to maintain operating funding – funds received by members for
implementing the RWSC Annual Work Plan - In selected cases, accepting and pooling funds from multiple sources for research
- Procure and contract for research as needed